Nathan and I milked Fern this evening. Almost a half-gallon of beautiful, rich milk!
We took her out of her paddock and gave her a small bucket with alfalfa pellets and a wee bit of sweet feed – she stood and ate while the milking was done – never a kick or attempted kick of the bucket!
What a sweet cow we have!!!
Dexter the bull was still in his paddock this morning when Nathan went out to feed everyone. That was good.
Nathan and I will milk her when I get home from work tonight. ..
Went outside about 2 hours after Nathan & ! put Dex in his own paddock.
He had climbed over a section of fence that was already scrunched down to about 30 inches high. He was happily eating up the alfalfa pellets and sweet feed we had given Fern.
So, I had to fix that section of fencing. Since it was late, I did that after church Sunday afternoon.
I cut a section of cattle panel down to fit the section of fence that Dex had stepped over. I then nailed it to the wooden end post and wired the other end tightly to the adjacent metal post.
Nathan, Sam and I put Dex back into his paddock. He was furious!!! He ran around (slipping and sliding in the Kentucky clay mud) and kicking his hooves in the air! But he stayed put this time – we would hear him yell (or bellow) loudly every few minutes.
Eventually the bellowing subsided to once or twice per hour.
It is after 10 PM, and we suspect he is still in his paddock. If he stays there tonight, Nathan may get milk from Fern tomorrow! Dex has been nursing her dry every day, so we haven’t had fresh milk from her for over 2 months. We’re hoping to get a quart or 2 each day.
–Pat
This morning, while feeding and watering the animals (in the freezing rain and ice), I saw that the bull was “bullying” the cow (no pun intended). He would push her away from the hay, and she is obviously intimidated- and getting thinner.
So, I went out and took down the electric fence wire (which he had run through as soon as we put him in the paddock with the electric fence). Nathan helped me carry the big roll of field fencing down to the paddock.
By then, my gloves were soaking wet, since I had to strip the ice off of the high tensile wire as I rolled it up (after taking it off of the fence posts). I carried the fence wire insulators and the rolls of high tensile fence wire down to the garage to store them. it was still icing and raining when I went into the garage. When I came outy, with the fence clips for the field fence, it had turned to HUGE snow flakes, mixed in with the rain and ice.
The boys and I came in to sip tea and coffee while I put my soaked gloves on the wood stove to “steam dry”.
I will head back out once I finish the coffee and put up the field fencing. Once that is done, Dex the bull will have his own paddock and he won’t be picking on Fern anymore.
Update to follow…
I got a lot done this past weekend.
I took Friday and Monday off of work so I could try to get ahead.
The boys and I cut, split and stacked a lot of fire wood.
I got two thirds of the porch sided on the outside. Of course, I had to frame in a sliding glass door first!
I patched a couple of holes in the drive up the hill and cleaned out and dredged two drainage trenches to help alleviate the washing away of the gravel from the run off from the rain and snow.
I’m sure there was more – my muscles are telling me so as I type this, but I’m too tired to remember what it was!
–Pat
Here is an excerpt from the article:
Each year, federal inspectors find illegal levels of antibiotics in hundreds of older dairy cows bound for the slaughterhouse. Concerned that those antibiotics might also be contaminating the milk Americans drink, the Food and Drug Administration intended to begin tests this month on the milk from farms that had repeatedly sold cows tainted by drug residue.
But the testing plan met with fierce protest from the dairy industry, which said that it could force farmers to needlessly dump millions of gallons of milk while they waited for test results. Industry officials and state regulators said the testing program was poorly conceived and could lead to costly recalls that could be avoided with a better plan for testing.
Now here is a quote from the Vice President of the Dairy Farmers od America:
“What has been served up, up to this point, by Food and Drug has been potentially very damaging to innocent dairy farmers,” said John J. Wilson, a senior vice president for Dairy Farmers of America, the nation’s largest dairy cooperative. He said that that the nation’s milk was safe and that there was little reason to think that the slaughterhouse findings would be replicated in tests of the milk supply.
My question is, why shouldn’t the FDA, who had reason to believe that there is a milk supply tainted with antibiotics because of the test returned from MILK COWS SENT TO THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE. have access to the dairy farms to test the milk and the cattle for overdosing (or, IMHO just plain old “dosing”) of antibiotics?
BTW,
I don’t follow these dairy farm practices. No antibiotics here.
Why not read the article and decide for yourselves?
F.D.A and Dairy Industry Spar Over Testing of Milk – NYTimes.com.
Didn’t go to work today – saw people sliding all over the road and I had 5.5 inches of snow on my drive.
I cleared the drive with my tractor and then got my 4×4 truck up the hill.
Our drive is a steep hill that runs about 100 yards to the actual “driveway” where we park our vehicles. When I got home from work yesterday, there was already about 4 inches on the drive and I was sliding while trying to get up the hill. So, I parked at the bottom and walked up. I didn’t blade the drive with the tractor because the weather forecast was for “heavy snow” later.
The picture at the left is a view from our back porch – there is a sidewalk next to the little solar powered walkway lights. Of course, you can’t see the walkway.
I do need to cut and split more firewood this weekend. As you can see, we’ll have to broom the snow off of the piles of wood before we start. I’ll need to lay down a tarp to put the wood on after splitting, too..
We started burning wood in the wood stove in late October this year. That’s about a month earlier than usual. The cold hasn’t let up since. I’m concerned about my bees, since I haven’t been able to feed or check on them since 1 warm day in early November. They had plenty of stores in October and I fed them for about 2 weeks straight (adding essential oils to the sugar water fro mite reduction and over-all health). But, I like having a day or two in the winter where the temps are over 55, so I can open the hives and check on them or feed them.
Hopefully there will be some warm days in early to mid February when I can check on them.
This cold keeps me from working outside also. The boys and I have to go out to cut & split wood, but I can’t really go out and use a saw, measuring tape or hammer with gloves on, and that makes for longer hours in the cold if I try to work on the barn or the porch.
As I mentioned earlier in this post, hopefully there will be some warmer days in early February.
I need to have the barn up before the end of March, when the does start kidding!
–Pat
Well, it took some figuring, and gathering up the strength to press in and start all over.
I was able to sink the 6 4×4 posts I needed today. The weather was in the 50′s and off and on sprinkling.
Once the posts are set, I will continue on. I intend to raise the roof back up a bit (it sagged when the original 4×4′s burned up, but 2 4×4′s and the siding were holding it up.
I will raise it up when I replace the 2×6 support beams. Which will happen later in the week.
After putting out the smoldering hay inside the remaining part of the barn today, I was able to see what was left and usable.
I was surprised that, with 6 4×4′s, 4 2×6′s and several 2×4′s, I could quickly get a 24 x 12 section together for the goats. I will also have an 8 x 8 section for milking.
I need to get the posts sunk tomorrow! It will freeze overnight tomorrow, but if I work in the AM, I could get the posts sunk.
Photos below…
